Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Mississippi River

The flying adventure that I had dreamed about begins for real!
What a thrill!

Barge traffic on the river.

The levee bank that protects the countryside from flooding.

.........................................

Right off topic, but I'll tell it anyhow...
A funny incident happened on an airfield while still in Mississippi.

Probably best to leave that airfield nameless....

I was parked at a hangar a long way from the FBO, and needed to go to the toilet. But I knew that if I went to the toilet near the manager's office, I'd get caught, and have to endure a long sermon as he felt the need to 'witness' all the experiences of his life..... Sort of like getting hooked up in a blackberry patch, just can't get loose..... No one around, so I decided to just go in the bush behind the hangar. Carefully picked my way through the real blackberry bushes and found a clearing. Was squatted down and just getting to the satisfying part of that exercise, when I realized that I had one foot on a fire ants nest! Hundreds of them had already crawled up my pant leg before they all starting to sting at the same time! So it was a mad scramble back through the blackberries, with my pants around my knees, and anyone will know that trying to hurry through blackberry bushes is painful and bloody.... Got out on the taxiway and stripped of my pants altogether, trying to keep the ants from getting to the really tender vital parts.... It would have made a really good 'Funniest Home Video', but luckily no one saw me do that frantic fire ant dance.....